Digital Journal Prompt #12
In our workshop today, we focused, in part, on using examples in order to build the shared knowledge between you (writer) and your audience (reader). As we build and ensure shared knowledge between ourselves and our reader we, in turn, build a sense of shared investment. It also builds the logic of your argument. In this way, ensuring shared knowledge builds upon an appeal to logic, logos.
Look to your argument. Is there anything that as you explain now continues to feel very abstract? And by that I mean, is your explanation or defining of this concept or claim seated in realistic details? If it is not, should it/could it be?
Look to our examples of persuasive arguments we have read for this section:
The student example in Chapter 6 of our Rules text uses the example of The Times-Picayune’s coverage after Hurricane Katrina (115-6).
In his TedTalk ”How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day,” Tristan Harris takes a moment to explain what he means when he says “Snapstreaks.” He needs his audience to understand what a snapstreak is regardless of the social media platforms they use themselves. He needs his audience to have this shared knowledge in order to understand his larger claim. Snapstreaks is an illustration of his larger claim. He cannot afford for that meaning to pass his reader’s attention.
Is there a claim in your essay that needs this same treatment? The answer for all of you (that I have read so far) is yes. Spend some time considering your argument and its integral pieces. Is there a claim that could benefit from this strategy?
Identify this claim and use the following guidelines to work on revising and adding for the purpose of building logos and shared knowledge.
Follow these guidelines in your response:
Identify and note the claim in your draft that could use this strategy.
Add to your support and illustration of this claim by adding this example strategy. For some of you, this requires description of something you have already introduced. For others this may be a straight forward example. For even others, you need both an example and further description and definition.
Write at least one full paragraph here. This is meant to help you to revise and learn more about argumentation. Don’t short-change yourself and your learning.
Your response to this prompt is due by Wednesday, November 22 @ 9:00AM.